Way back in 1962 the Trinidadian author of Indian origin, VS Naipaul, wrote in his book about India that its roads didn’t have pavements, or sidewalks.

Believe it or not, it still mostly doesn’t. And it’s not regarded as a problem.

As a result a pedestrian risks his life and limb each time he chooses to walk on an Indian road. It’s the Indian version of Russian roulette. You can be dead on departure.

I once asked a former head of the Central Road Research Institute why we didn’t have pavements. He looked surprised. He had never thought about it. That was 20 years ago.

Since then I have been trying to solve this puzzle but no convincing solution has emerged. Apparently, it’s just one of those things we, as a nation, don’t do.

For one thing we don’t include the pavement/sidewalk in the contracts to build roads. For another there’s no authority that supervises the use of pavements. They belong to the Vasudhaiva Kutambakam principle.

Health, environmental benefits

But we should because there are huge health and environmental benefits in making roads safe to walk on. There is considerable evidence from research on pavements/sidewalks to show that they encourage people to walk instead of taking motorised transport and prevent accidents.

Yet, India eschews pavements/sidewalks as if they are a form of virulent disease. And even when it deigns to build them, it hands them over to animals, shops and slums.

To be sure, even in the so-called developed world they allow restaurants and fruit-vegetable shops to spill over onto the pavement. But there’s always room to walk.

But not in India despite the fact that the Supreme Court has made access to roads a fundamental right. But roads are roads and pavements are pavements and never shall the twain coexist. Roads by the way are a State subject in the Constitution.

Clearly, pedestrians come last because we are like that only.

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